A/N: This is my first fic, so please let me know what you think--even if it's a flame, it's still feedback. Also, keep in mind that this is minamally beta-ed so if anybody feels it's worth looking over feel free!

Disclaimer for ALL CHAPTERS: don't own it.

Chapter One:

Revolution in Warfare

As his tired eyes fluttered open, the fluorescent white lights burned his vision. Lifting a hand to shield his eyes, he felt a light pressure on his forearm successfully stopping his weak attempt to block out the brightness.

"Just lie still now, Mustang, almost done."

He snapped his eyes closed again. He was cold, despite the fact that the air all around him was scalding; icy pinpricks stabbed at his skin wherever the pale flesh was exposed.

"A few more stitches and you're set." The first voice said again, a voice that now, as his mind slowly cleared, he could recognize as being very deep and male. Did he know that voice? He was sure he did.

Roy opened his mouth to ask, only to find his throat painfully dry to the point where the only sound that came out was a cross between a gasp and a choke. He tried to inhale, only to find he couldn't. He panicked, trying in vain to sit up and clear his air way.

A large hand pushed him gently back down.

"Don't talk now. Just lie still." The male voice commanded. As the large hand pressed surprisingly softly to his forehead, he could smell the bitter tang of anapestic and suddenly it all dawned on him:

Hospital.

The memories of the attack came rushing back with full force. The events that had led to his current situation, all too clear far too soon. He involuntarily shivered as the sounds and sights of the whole ordeal played back through his mind.

The man spoke to him again, but as to what he said Roy would never know. There was a darkness creeping through his mind, blotting out the macabre images and replacing them with a comforting nothingness. As the last of the light slowly faded, he did little to fight it—surrendering completely to the unknown of sleep.

The door clicked shut behind the doctor as he stepped out into the hallway. That had been his twentieth patient of the night at least, and this was only the beginning. As more and more men were rolled in he grew less and less faithful to 'the cause'. In his mind, there was no cause that was worth the lives of all the young men he had seen laid out before him tonight. The thought off all the men he had yet to see in the next few hours only affirmed this further.

If you spend your life saving people, he pondered, perhaps there's no way you can justify anything that only causes more death.

A petite nurse ran over to him, dark locks bobbing the whole way until she stood dwarfed in his shadow. She handed him another stack of charts and he sighed. The night was still young, and time was not on the side of either him or his patients.

The next time Roy opened his eyes, he was greeted again by the burning of lights. Only this time, instead of the sharp glow of the fluorescents from before, it was the warm honey colored sunshine from the nearby open window. He slowly worked his gaze away from the window and around the room, scanning each detail with careful consideration.

His throat was even more excruciatingly dry than before, each breath he took burned all the way down to his lungs. He shifted to sit up and immediately felt the blinding hot shoot of pain blossom from his side and travel all the way up his torso in one violent shudder.

Roy fell back onto the bed, gasping painfully for breath. Each gasp burned more than the one before—it felt like his whole airway was torn and raw. Even if it killed him, he needed water and he needed it now!

Shifting again, he fought through the pain as he slowly sat up. Carefully, he slid both of his legs from the bed and pushed himself onto his feet with and uneasy wobble. He leaned against the wall, and using it as a guide slowly began to make his way towards the door.

Footsteps echoed in the hallway, coming closer with each step. Roy froze.

"I can't believe this!" The voice belonging to the first set of footsteps said. From the sound of his walk, Roy could guess that he was probably a very large man.

The voice of the second set of footsteps owner spoke next, "A wife and kids." He sighed, "What a shitty way to end."

Roy's mind wheeled desperately, did he know anybody like that? Had he known that person?

The first man spoke again, "I don't want to be the one to break it to her. That's your job."

"You could just get the next Colonel to do it for you." Judging by the sound of their footsteps they were right outside the door now.

"And who's that?"

The second man laughed, "You're never going to believe this; remember the little upstart from out east a few years ago?"

"You're kidding? Him?" The footsteps kept going past the doorway, the voices fading as the two got further away. Before they got completely out of earshot Roy could make out one last thing:

"That's right, the next Colonel of the Armistris Army is, Roy Mustang…"

kinda short. sorry. The beginning is always the hardest part... if you got this far, thanks for reading! I hope this gets better in the future and isn't a waste of your time!